Improvement in postal cars



G. R. HARRISON.

Postal-Oar.

No. 214,036 Patented April 8,1879.

\\ lfizzerdor V//////fi///////////// N. PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPMEE WASHING! UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFIc-E CHARLES R. HARRISON, OF FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN.

IMPROVEMENT lN POSTAL CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 214,036, dated April 8, 1879 application filed November 11, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OHARLns R. HARRISON, of the city and county of Fond du Lac and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Furniture and Apparatus of Railway Post-Office and Route- Agent Cars, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

I believe that thus far in the mail service on railways the furniture and apparatus used, and the working facilities for clerks, have been and are illy adapted to the shape and capacity of the cars, to which they are necessarily limited.

The object of my invention is to more fully utilize the space, admit light from the Windows, secure better ventilation, economize time, facilitate work, lessen the number and individual labor of clerks and employs, and save expense generally in said mail service by the combination, in a system of mail-car fixtures and furniture, of portable drop-tables and bag-racks, center standards, supporting center rods, stationary side brackets, supporting rack-rods and hook-rod, as shown in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a plan of my invention; Fig. 2, a transverse sectional view, with table and one center rod; Fig. 3, a transverse sectional view, with portable bagracks and the open hinges and hooks for the same.

A is the center standard or bracket, bifurcated at top for two rods, a, being the eyebrackets for the same; A, Fig. 2, the center standard for one rod; a, the eye of same. B B are the stationary side brackets; b b, the eyes of same. b b are the hook-rods. G is the portable drop-table; c, the double open hinge or hooks on table. 0 is the portable drop bag-rack. D is the attaching-hook of table and rack; D, the supporting-hinge of table or rack on the rods. E E are the center suspension-rods; c e e, the suspension-rods on side stationary rack. X is the open hookhinge for sustaining bag-rack O.

In constructing and arranging my apparatus in a railwaypost-office car, (after removing and confining to the ends of the car or room, and

along either side, over the windows, all boxes pigeon-hole cases, and such furniture,) I first aflix to each side of the car the brackets B, their bases resting on the seat-rail or the floor, and their tops reaching up to the line of the window-sills. These brackets, at convenient intervals, project from the wall of the car, and support, through their eyes b b, rods 6 e 0, running longitudinally with the car and parallel with each other, butinclinedfrom the rear downward to the front rod. These rods are furnished with small hooks, for hanging and holding open tiers of pouches or bags, which pouches are labeled by card-slides 0 on the rod at the back of the pouches, respectively. The fourth and lower front rod, 1), is for hooking onto and supporting the fronts of the tables and portable bagracks O O. I then erect between these side racks, and, at proper intervals, lengthwise of the car, the standards A and A, supporting longitudinal rods E E through their respective eyes a at. These rods are above the floor at the convenient height of a working-tablesay, two feet six inches, more or less-and support and suspend the tables 0 and bagracks G.

The tables G are square, or nearly square, planes, with or without side flanges, each furnished on the bottom and near the outer edges with open double hooks or hinges c or single hinges D, and hinged hooks D at the front edges. The double or single open hinges cor D suspend the table on the rod E, and are adjustable as to position according to the length of the table, as hereinafter explained. The hinged hooks D secure the table, when raised, to the hook-rod b. These tables are portable, and, by the open hinges, readily attached to or detached from the center rod E, and as readily unhooked from b, and lowered or shut down on the line of the center rods and stand ards, or thrown up in perpendicular position and parallel with said center rods and standards.

It will be obvious that the full length of the table will vary with the space between the re spective side-bracket racks; but the distance from the hinges to the outer edge must correspond with the height of the rod E from the floor, so that, when dropped or shut down, the

table will hangperpendicular to the floor. To accomplish this and traverse with two tables the space between the side racks, I bifurcate the top of standard A, and so spread or contract the eye-brackets a a and rods E E, and adjust the hinges c or D to the invariable distance from the outside edge of the table of the elevation of the rods E from the floor.

The portable drop bag-racks C are, like the tables, hung onto center rods E and hooked to side rod 1) when in use, and, by means of their hook-hinges X, are readily dropped down or detached when not in use. They are oblong frames, furnished with small hooks for the months of bags, and respectively adapted to holding one or more open bags or pouches.

These racks, together with the several rods used in my apparatus, are cheaply and easily constructed from the ordinary gas-pipe and elbows, screwed together at the joints; but I use any other available material, metallic or wooden, as equivalents of said gas-piping.

It will be readily apparent that shifting these tables and single racks to any desirable positions or groupings relative to the stationary side racks or sections of the same, or to each other, will largely facilitate the throwing or distribution of mail-matter from the tables to the proper receptacles of pouch or box and upon finishing the sorting and distribution of mails, or any portion thereof, tables or racks, or both, may be at once dropped down, thrown up in perpendicular position over rods E, or removed entirely, leaving alleys or clear passage-way in front of both or either tier or group of pouches, or any section thereof, for the purpose of removing the full pouches and supplying their places with empty ones, and replacing and rearranging the tables and portable racks in positions or groups convenient for resuming the work of sorting and distributing. The whole work is also below the line of the window-sills, giving light and ventilation and unobstructed space for throwing in every direction.

In route-agent cars these portable and drop tables, put into the places of the ordinary stationary tables or counters, will occupy much less space when in use; can be shifted as convenient to face the work in hand, used singly or in groups, as required, and when dropped or removed will render available for other work all the room under the table and boxtiers now wasted.

Having thus shown the construction, use, and advantages of my apparatus, I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, in an apparatus for handling and distributing railway post-oflice mail-matter, of the side-bracket racks B, the hook-rod b, the center standards A A, center rods E, portable drop-tables G, and portable drop bag'racks G, substantially as and for the purposes above set forth.

2. The combination, in stationary side bagracks, of the brackets B, under the line of window-sills, the relatively-sloping rods 0 e e, and hook-rod b, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. The combination, in center supports for tables and bag-racks, of the straight and bifurcated standards A A and single or double longitudinal rods E, substantially as and for the purposes setforth.

4. The eombination,in a portable drop-table, of the plane 0, open double hinges c or single hinges D, and hooks D, substantially as described.

5. The combination, in a portable drop bagrack, of the oblong frame 0, hook-hinge D or X, and suspension-hook D, substantially as described.

CHARLES R. HARRISON. Witnesses:

WM. D. CoNKLIN, HENRY HULL. 

